Patterns are incorporated onto the surfaces of fabrics and fabric-like materials using various techniques. Some of these fabrics are used for items such as pillowcases, tote bags, shirts, flags, and the like. It is well known in the art that it is often cumbersome, inefficient, and difficult to apply stenciled patterns to fabrics and fabric-like materials on a consistent basis. With fabrics and fabric-like materials, one is dealing with uneven surfaces, which makes the process of applying patterns to these surfaces using stencils is difficult and creates imperfect results. Further, with such processes the fabric can move around, which can require one to tape both the fabric (e.g., pillowcase) and stencil to a working surface. When applying a pattern to a pillowcase, there is often no extra room to place tape around it without taping off some of the pillowcase. Additionally, most stencils are not specifically designed for fabric and fabric-like materials such as those used as pillowcases, which means that one must repeat the design over and over to stencil these surfaces. While one can certainly stencil such fabrics or fabric-like materials without a frame, there are certain disadvantages with such an approach.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other deficiencies in the art.